The Wheel will Turn
by Adam nar'Althor
Summary: This is a somewhat faithful rendition of the Mass Effect story. This story includes an original and powerful character, Adam. This is a double POV between Adam and Shepard. Combat is described in detail. I make changes to fix retcons and inconsistencies. Any that I make is a mistake. If Adam ever speaks in the first person singular, it is a mistake.
1. Chapter 1

It's cold. It seems like it has always been cold.

He was curled up with his back against a stone wall. It appeared that he had been buried up to his shoulders with the dirt of the planet. There was no mound of dirt surrounding him, the entire area was flat, including the area around him. His clothes had decayed to mere scraps on his shoulders. He had no belongings with him. He moved his head up from his knees. The sunlight from a rising blue sun reflected off his dull golden eyes. His eyes were unfocused, nothing caught his attention, nothing was important. The windswept, dry, and barren landscape were unseen by his mind. The warmth was no longer there, but the pain was there. Underneath the self constructed mountain in his heart, the pain lay there, dormant. After all this time, he still felt its weight.

The two suns and three planets in the vicinity of this moon went unnoticed as they followed each other across the sky. He didn't move. Then a red streak appeared in the sky. It remained there for several minutes. It was a ship. The ship gracefully touched down in the distance, far from the lone figure. Unbeknownst to him, many humans left the ship and set up a camp. They lived there for a long time digging into the planet and studying the planet's geology. The planet rotated about these two suns in its awkward orbit twenty two times a cycle. It gets dark after twenty two years. He heard the flapping of leathery wings leap into the black sky. These things swarmed the camp and the sounds reached him. His mind processed the noise and filed it away in his memory, but he didn't hear them. The screams, the running, the dying, the quiet of death. After a year of darkness, the suns returned, but still, they remained unnoticed by anyone.

Another ship came, this time it tumbled out of the sky and scarred the land with its shell, closer to him this time. A few people came out, and attempted to survive. A man in goggles walked up to him and looked down at his gold eyes. The goggled man kneeled down and surveyed the head, kneecaps, and shoulders sticking out of the ground. The stranger breathed in deeply through his nose and quickly moved back from the buried figure as his face scrunched up in confusion, a reaction from the smell. This man caught his attention for the first time in a long time. The nearly buried head moved its golden eyes up and met the goggled face.

(Chronicles of Riddick reference)

"Not dead. Not human" the goggled man spoke. "Freaky."

After a few more seconds of observation, the goggled man left.

Days passed, the darkness came, and only three of the newcomers survived to leave in a ship. He didn't care, he moved his forehead back down onto his knees and closed his eyes. And so it continued, as he had seen for countless years before. He left this planet once many settlers arrived and moved on through the galaxy.

* * *

><p>He had long stopped intervening in the affairs going on around him a long time ago. He was trying to live what many, at the time, would call a fulfilling life during his first few centuries. Then the millennia passed. He experienced much over the years. How to read and write in the many available languages. How to cook and clean. How to weave and repair. Then how to fight and kill. He was not unfeeling in the early days. He fell in love with a woman, and it was a magnificent time. The beauty of the experience was intoxicating and they enjoyed their time together. Then, as must happen, she died. He mourned her death for many years, and kept to the vows he made to her. Surprising himself, he fell in love again, and again it was beautiful. And again, and again, and again. Each time, some of the intensity was lost. Soon, he stopped loving. As time passed, most of his talents fell out of use, including his ability to express emotion. Times changed, resources changed, but there was always a constant. While weaving clothes and fixing brick walls fell by the wayside, killing was always there. Murder, slaughter, death, and pain were always there. And he became extremely proficient in these skills, this… art. He threw himself into his work. Soldier, mercenary, or bounty hunter, he did not care what he was called as long as he killed. It was the only way to smother the grief for his many dead friends and loved ones. Even when he was with people, he was always alone, always outliving those around him. All of his pain, and all of his grief went into the killing.<p>

He didn't know why he kept living, he just did. And so he waited. Waiting for it all to end.

* * *

><p>"Holy shit!"<p>

Sound and light both assaulted his senses. He opened his eyes to see who had disturbed his slumber in his cave. There was rock around his body except the area that had been cleared by the back of his head. The cave had apparently collapsed around him during his slumber.

_Is this it?_

He thought for a moment but then knew the answer was 'no.' The weight was still there. He felt a pressure against the back of his head.

_Don't touch me!_

He jerked his head back and broke the rock encasing his neck, throwing the pressure that was a four fingered one thumbed hand off his stiff neck. His golden eyes snapped open. Loud pops from his long unused muscles and bones resounded in the area.

"Woaw there. Don't move. You might be injured."

The light was blinding, but his pupils quickly adapted from his years of darkness and he could now see his surroundings. He was in the ground beneath a metal room. What seemed to be an excavation tunnel extended into the distance with a chain of lights hanging from the ceiling.

He looked around in some confusion, but quickly evaluated the situation.

_Metallurgy. Electronics. This is an advanced part of time. _

Then he saw the person kneeling next to him.

_Humans? Still? Hmm… How interesting. _

"Hey, can you understand me?"

He did not know what the man was saying, but that did not surprise him. Personal experience had shown him that languages usually change only twice as slowly as empires. Even quicker when empires were spread across multiple planets, but this would not be a problem. All he had to do was hunt down as much information as he could about this cycle and read it. The neural implant he received many thousands of years ago would take care of the rest. Compatibility was a nonissue. The area around him appeared to be under construction.

_That must have been how they found me. They were digging up the floor and found my collapsed cave. So, either an expansion or a still developing area. How long was I asleep for this time? The cave was spacious at the time, sturdy rock, and on an unpopulated world. I slept for a long time. Good. _

He turned his gaze upon the person in the room.

_Human male, clothed, and electronic weapons of some kind. _

The clothed man seemed about to collapse underneath his penetrating gaze despite him having a slab of rock atop his shoulders. After bodily shaking himself, the man came to his senses.

"Well, I guess not. I didn't know that there were other miners down here before us. There must have been a cave in and you were trapped. Damn, you look like you've been down here for a while. Oh shit, right! Stay right there! I'll go get the doc!"

The gold eyes watched him leave, waiting for his chance to act without drawing attention. Once the man was out of sight, he moved his arms with inhuman strength, causing large cracks to form in the rock slab and then shattering it. He lifted his chiseled form from the new hole in the ground and made his way down the tunnel in a crouch, ready to lunge at a moment's notice. He did not want to be seen by living people yet.

_Need to get out of here before draw more attention. Need to planet hop again. Need more sleep. It's not over yet._

His hand brushed the wall as he moved on.

_Clean cuts, the result of intense heat or extremely sharp metals. Perhaps they have lasers of sorts. _

He reached a four way intersection and quick footsteps came from the left. Without hesitation, he leapt up to the ceiling, grabbed onto the cables, and flattened his body out so that he was parallel to the ceiling. A group of three people ran underneath him, one in a white lab coat.

The three people went off to where he woke up, not noticing the naked man on the ceiling. He dropped down silently and walked down the hallway the people had come from. The hallway the people had come from seemed completed and led to a room with display panels and several tables. He ran over to the panels and began running his eyes over everything on screen. The complex electronics in his head memorized everything he saw and began working out the language. He began hitting buttons essentially at random to access different screens of information. Data flashed before his eyes and was burned into his memory.

"The… words. English. I'm… speaking… English. Alphabet. Language. I… learned… the English… language… Russian? Chinese? Yes."

"Good for you."

He spun around and saw the woman in the lab coat that he had seen before. She was standing there in the entryway to the half finished tunnels with her arms crossed, gazing at him with intense scrutiny. The two men he had noticed flanked her, one was the man who had found him and the other was new.

"Damn" the new man muttered. "He does exist."

He turned to his comrade.

"Looks like I owe you fifty."

He narrowed his eyes at this exchange, finally understanding the words.

"What an exquisite specimen" the doctor murmured, tapping her index finger to her bottom lip as she looked the golden eyed man up and down.

He felt a stab on his neck and he ferociously snapped his body around, anger on his features, and grabbed the extended arm of another human, blonde, in a lab coat, but the stinging was still there. He threw the human away from him into a wall and reached up to his neck. He pulled out a hollow glass tube with a metal needle at its tip, the plunger had been pushed nearly all of the way down. He turned back to the female and smirked at her.

"Interesting."

As the word left his lips, his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fell forward. Before his face hit the metal floor, two hands grabbed his shoulders and gently lowered him to the ground. His world began to fade away.

"Thank you Doctor Ruvik. Though was that entirely necessary?" the female voiced.

"Perhaps Doctor Chunhua, but I didn't want to wait to find out. Plus, he could be injured and I wouldn't want…

Night encompassed his vision and he collapsed into his drug induced sleep.

* * *

><p>He used to dream. He stopped doing so a long time ago; he simply had too many memories or shut them all out. But now he was waking up from a long sleep; his mind was becoming more active. So he found himself in the council room housing all of the representatives of all the governments of all of the planets in the Terran Dominion. They were bickering among themselves about the exterior threats they were facing. The Zerg creatures mostly. These beings were advancing across every border and were spreading unchecked across the galaxy. He ran into the center of the chamber and yelled at them to unite against this common foe. He had been campaigning for years to have them mobilize and marshal their forces to defend themselves. It didn't work. It took some rogue captain and Zerg woman hybrid to save the galaxy that couldn't save itself. In the long run, it still didn't matter. Many years later, the galaxy was still wiped clean. Cold… So cold.<p> 


	2. Chapter 2

His eyes snapped open.

"Ah, good. I was hoping you would wake up quickly."

He turned his head to his right and saw the female doctor standing beside him, typing onto a datapad.

"You've been asleep for almost a week. You have no injuries, no diseases, you are however, quite malnourished. I'm surprised you're conscious at all. With the deficiencies of essential nutrients you have, you should be in a coma. Though this does explain your mental state. All that babble in English and Chinese. Don't worry though, I'm fixing you up real good."

At this, he looked down at his right arm that had a plastic tube stuck into it and connected to a bag of liquid above him. After his previous experience with a needle, he reached over to remove it but his hand was slapped away playfully. She smiled down at him.

"Now, now. This will make you better. You better leave it in. Doctor's orders."

He looked into her eyes and found no malice there so he allowed the IV to remain. He moved his head to take in his surroundings. He was on a metal table, rather uncomfortable, with a small blanket up to his waist to protect his modesty. The room he was in was large, but not empty. Many people were on tables with bandages over most of their bodies, and they all wore the same outfit. Some had lost their limbs, while others appeared to be suffering from second to third degree burns. Many were lying on the floor because there weren't enough tables. He turned his gaze back onto the woman who was still staring at him. She shook herself and looked at the wounded, grief creeping into her eyes.

"The Thresher Maw attacks started a few days ago while you were till unconscious. We holed up in the remains of the settlement until these marines arrived. But they didn't know what they were getting themselves into. We do what we can for them, but… Thresher Maw acid is hardly understood."

Doctor Chunhua turned her gaze back to him.

"So you" she stated quite bluntly. "You are an enigma."

He got up on his elbows and cocked his head at her, prompting Chunhua to elaborate. She held up her datapad.

"The data I've collected from your body is unbelievable. Literally. I need more accurate equipment and perhaps I should show this wonderful information to Doctor Ruvik. I've never seen anything like this. Your DNA, your telomeres, your pristine physique, your neural implant that I've never even heard of!"

Her eyes took on a hunter's gaze.

"I need you to provide me with explanations for these mysteries."

He simply nodded.

"Will do… so."

And he got up off the bed, pushing the sheet aside as he did so. Doctor Chunhua's eyes widened for a moment then she looked away, blushing and biting her lower lip.

"Ahem, ah, there is a… a set of clothes at the end of your bed."

He tapped his right arm, indicating his inability to go that distance, and she again blushed before grabbing and then shoving the clothes at him. While he put the pants on, she removed the IV from him so he could put his shirt on.

"Now, let's get that IV back in."

Before she could, he blocked the needle. Chunhua looked at him with frustration but he explained why.

"Where… is the… b-bathroom?"

Doctor Chunhua made an 'O' with her mouth.

"Oh. Okay. Just through that door to the left and around the corner."

He made himself show intense confusion at this.

"S-S-Show me?"

She chagrined herself at almost having a mentally confused patient go off on his own and nodded. Doctor Chunhua pocketed her datapad and took his hand, leading him to the bathroom door. No one was in the hallway. She reached down and slowly opened the door.

"I think you can handle-"

His hands shot forward, grabbed each side of her head, and twisted. The only sound she made was the sharp crack accompanying her breaking neck. As her body fell forward onto the toilet, he pulled out the datapad. Her face slammed into the button on the toilet and it flushed. He idly scrolled through the information on it, enhancing his language and medical knowledge but he quickly exhausted its usefulness. After snapping the datapad into many pieces, he slipped it underneath the late doctor's body into the toilet and pushed the button underneath her frozen face, destroying any surviving information on the pad. He was unmoved. It had to be done to ensure no one knew about him.

He left the bathroom and ensured the door was firmly closed behind him.

CRACK!

The facility shook and dirt fell from the ceiling as if the area had been hit by a large object.

RAAAR!

The high pitched roar echoed throughout the shaking tunnels. He headed away from the occupied bathroom and passed the med bay, his head looking from side to side for some indication of an exit.

_Need a ship._

The sound of shouting and running quickly accompanied the shock to the base. Many marines, some wounded, jumped from the ground and rushed off in the direction he was heading in. He followed, hoping they would lead him out. As they all jogged together, the sound of battle became evident. Metallic clicks, explosions, and the splashes of a heavy liquid. And the screams. Always the screams. He didn't mind. Sunlight suddenly began pouring into the tunnel as a large door slid open, revealing an area covered in craters and giant holes in the ground.

"Spread out! Don't clump up! It's coming around for another pass!"

The ground shook in response and then erupted, spewing forth a giant wormlike creature.

"Fucking shit!"

"Open fire! Open fire! Kill it!"

"No, no, no, no, no…"

He stood to the side of the doorway and allowed the marines to flood past him. They took up static positions along the land, using whatever cover they could. The giant worm, what he assumed to be a Thresher Maw, jerked its head back, and swung forward.

"Take cover!"

"Acid incoming!"

The ground exploded before him. Green acid splashed onto the ground and bodies, charring both into oblivion.

"Aaaaaagh!"

"It burns!"

"My arm!"

Their armour did nothing for them. If the acid didn't eat through it, it seeped through the seams and burned away their flesh. Many of them tried to rip their armour off trying to remove the acid, but their flailing was in vain. He saw it all, as he had seen it many times before. Bodies and pieces of bodies fell to the ground as more and more acid rained down from the monstrous creature shrugging off the soldiers' efforts as if they were insects nipping at its skin.

He didn't intervene; it wouldn't matter. Their numbers dwindled quickly, brothers and sisters dying side by side. An older man ran up to him and shoved a metal object in his hands.

"Take this gun and get shooting dammit! You wanna die here!?"

He cocked his head as the old uniformed man ran back to the last few marines and tried to rally them as best he could. He dropped the useless weapon to the disturbed earth and slowly walked to the firing line, ignoring the hazards, almost curious. Three more soldiers fell to the fiery liquid as he crouched next to their lifeless husks. The liquid hit them dead on and they didn't even know death had claimed them as they fell. One soldier managed to dodge the blast and continued moving to avoid any additional acid. Shaking itself, and subsequently the ground, the Maw leapt off to the side and disappeared into the earth. The soldiers used this long awaited reprieve to catch their breaths.

"Where the hell are those extraction ships we called yesterday!?"

The soldier that had been running from cover to cover answered through ragged breathes.

"Hell if I know sir! Last I heard they were still on their way."

"They're leaving us here to die! We are going to die!" another soldier shouted to the empty sky.

Many others joined him with their own cries to anything that could hear them. The older soldier walked up and down the line trying to instill order, reverting to corporeal punishment several times. Their fear was palpable. He breathed in deeply.

The still sane young soldier walked up the lines, trying to assist his leader, and ended up before him.

"Where's your gun?"

He looked away from the battlefield at this soldier.

"I… don't need… one. Not good shot."

The soldier appeared to be in far higher spirits than any of the others. He smirked and sat down next to him.

"You a civvie, right?"

He thought for a moment then nodded.

"Figures. Can't believe that we need the manpower. At this rate…"

The soldier looked over at his terrified comrades at first with resignation.

"Eh, never mind. My name's Shepard. You got a name?"

The ground protested in response. The apparent leader kneeled in the center of the line.

"Alright everyone, keep your feet moving and focus your fire on its fucking face! If you have any explosives, use them now."

The ground 150 feet in front of them erupted, giving birth to the returning creature. The leader seemed to lose it, knowing his and all of their deaths were coming.

"If anyone dies without firing, I'll rape your fucking corpse!"

_Haven't heard that in a while._

The young soldier next to him raced away, bobbing and weaving as he fired.

_Hmm, competent or obedient._

He looked out and saw the Maw. Its grace was lost upon the others. Every time it lurched back to throw acid, every time it twitched its odd appendages, it showcased its focus and killer intent. This thing clearly evolved to prey upon those weaker than it.

_How pretty._

The creature left him alone while it showered its natural weapon upon the dying soldiers. Whoever was left, died screaming. One attempted to flee back into the base. The leader screamed at the creature and jumped out of cover, covering about a hundred feet in the open and yelling the entire way. He was crushed by one of its sharp arms. He looked around. One soldier was left; that young one. He was behind a wall of dirt the Maw had created firing his gun at the thick hide of the monster before him. One small human, his mouth wide in a war cry, trying to defy the hand he had been dealt. The soldier knew he would die, but he fought anyway. He felt a twinge.

_But that… that is… beautiful._

He looked back up and saw the Thresher open its maw and spit fire at the weak human before it. The impact nearly destroyed the dirt wall and the mammal should have died. It threw itself away from the wall at the last moment, but was still hit by the splash of acid as some of it rebounded off the top of the dirt wall. He had the same armour as everyone else. The small amount of acid that hit his torso still did its job. The gun fell from his writhing hands as he emptied his lungs and fell to the ground. Despite the agony he was certainly in, Shepard forced his trembling and slightly charred hand to his dropped rifle. He was enthralled by this show. Breathing deeply, he closed his eyes for a moment.

_No… No more._

"Leave him alone."

Flames danced along his clenched fists. The monster reared back and roared. He snapped his eyes open, the gold flashing in the sunlight alongside his rage contorted face.

"I SAID LEAVE HIM ALONE!"

(Watchmen Reference/Paraphrase)

Fire erupted around him, blackening the ground beneath his feet. His skin became ebony black and his eyes became balls of orange searing heat. (Think of The Guy on the cover of Disturbed's albums). He reared back and threw both of his hands forward, his fingers extended, his mouth open in a silent war cry; the epitome of primal fury. Fire lanced forward and pierced the monster's body before it could move. Armoured hide and internal organs alike burned away as it froze upon the lance of flame. The head of this spear soared through the sky, never altering from its path. The monster seemed to finally realize what had happened but could only twitch its small arms in response. It might not have even known that it died as it fell forward, its body being split by this intense flame, but it didn't matter. The two flaming halves fell apart and slammed into the dirt on both sides of the battlefield. No blood spewed forth, the fire was doing its job. In enough time the carcass in its entirety would turn to ash, the heat was so intense that bones crumbled into dust. Little evidence would remain.

His target decimated, he lowered his hands to his sides, his face still consumed by rage and his body visibly tensed with anger with each beat of his heart. He looked down at his hands and clenched his fists. Arching his back, he turned his face to the sky.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Then he saw it in the sky. A large object, a spaceship, was descending toward them. When his eyes saw this ship, his face calmed. When his face calmed, his body relaxed. The ebony left and the fire receded as his body returned to normal. Resignation returned. He walked over to the only other survivor on the battlefield, this… Shepard. Shepard had somehow propped himself against a dirt mound with his weapon on his knees, his chest barely moving as he breathed, before he fell unconscious. He kneeled down beside this gasping human, the only one who fought on and lived.

_What kind of creature are you?_

He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.

"Adam… Name is Adam."

* * *

><p>With meticulous care, Adam lifted Shepard up bridal style and walked toward the obvious landing pad. Adam was careful when the spaceship emptied its cargo of rescue teams onto the planet. When the teams arrived, he lifted Shepard up, cradling him in his arms, and carried him toward the approaching soldiers. Adam intentionally acted delusional, as if the entire event had traumatized him. It was difficult. Acting had been so easy up to his twenty fifth lifetime.<p>

The soldiers seemed to buy the act completely. They were very hasty in their work, and many muttered about "getting the hell away from such a giant fuckup out here in a distant shithole of Alliance Space." The leader of this rabble embodied this principle. The man cut corners and rushed Adam through the debriefing process; all in the name of trying to keep things 'hush hush.' The incident on Akuze blew over as a foreseeable occurrence on a planet so far away from civilization. Adam made sure to stay with Shepard throughout the entire process, never leaving his side if it could be helped. The only times Adam seemed to part from Shepard was whenever a camera appeared. The interviews by the journalists that were allowed access were always handled solely by Shepard. Adam seemed to inexplicably disappear every time. Shepard didn't mind, in fact, he rather enjoyed the company of another survivor of Akuze. Adam learned a lot about the galaxy and Shepard during their time during Shepard's rehabilitation. Their exchange was essentially one way, but Adam masterfully ensured that he subtly extracted information from Shepard. Adam did not want to have to kill Shepard. That thought stopped Adam in his tracks one day and he cocked his head to the side as if listening to a voice. He hadn't felt that about a being in a long time. It was… curious.

Being a traumatized survivor of Akuze allowed him the perfect cover. Adam pretended to have amnesia. This explained his ignorance about the galaxy. Shepard spent most of his time in the hospital teaching Adam about the Milky Way and a bit about Shepard himself. He had been an orphan on the human home world, Earth, and joined the Systems Alliance military as soon as possible. After several days, Adam was knowledgeable enough to set up his identity with the Alliance. No one knew who he was or who he was beforehand, so some government official came by to create a bank account and identification info for Adam.

First Name: Adam Last Name: N/A

Place of Birth: Unknown Time of Birth: Unknown

Home Planet: Unknown Parents: Unknown

The rest of the forms continued in much of the same vein. The only information available was the information that the state gave to him; his credit chit certification info, bank name and number, and identification as a citizen of the Systems Alliance. Adam saw to it that he was officially integrated into the galactic community and would be able to take advantage of all the advantages that accompanied this.

* * *

><p>They stared at each other, eyes never wavering, their hands poised. Shepard made his decision without hesitation.<p>

"B11."

Adam looked down quickly.

"Hit. You sunk my battleship."

Shepard beamed at this and jumped out of bed.

"Woooh! Boo yah!"

Adam cocked an eyebrow at this explosion.

"Looks like you've fully healed."

Shepard whirled back to Adam.

"Are you kidding!? We've been playing that damn game for the past month and I've never beaten you! Not once! Until now. Hell yeah I can summon the energy to celebrate."

Shepard continued his victory dance at the end of his bed. His body had healed up pretty well. The nurses ran in to reprimand his overexertion despite the fact that he had practically fully recovered. Shepard smiled sheepishly and got back into his bed as the nurses checked his stats. Adam remained in his chair throughout the entire performance, tapping away at his omnitool. Shepard noticed.

"Oh come on, Adam. You got to lighten up some time."

Adam shrugged.

"Hard to do."

Shepard shook his head at his friend.

"You're one intelligent bastard Adam, but you really gotta learn to chill out."

"Probably forgot how to."

Shepard reared his head back and laughed loudly while Adam smirked. The patients next door jolted awake. The laughter stopped as Shepard's face became curious.

"You don't miss it? Your past?"

"No."

Shepard looked taken aback.

"Huh. That was fast. You didn't even think about it."

Adam shrugged, and looked up from his omnitool.

"There is nothing there so there is nothing to care about or consider."

Shepard nodded slowly after a moment of thought.

"Oh, I see. I guess you don't know what you're missing."

Adam nodded in return. Shepard leaned back against his mound of pillows and stretched his arms above his head.

"Well, (sigh), you don't know your past, so how about your future? What are you gonna do now? Have you thought about that, at least?"

* * *

><p>With a lot of computer hacking, file sabotaging, and false file creation, Adam was able to slip into the Alliance military. Adam received a clean bill of health and a psyche recommendation from an Alliance doctor for a position in the Alliance Marines. The same platoon as Shepard, specifically. It was surprisingly difficult for Adam despite having memorized many different modern hacking techniques used in this era, and the accompanying software information about the servers he needed to hack into. But he had done this before. Many, many times. The technology was not vastly different from the previous times galactic wide networking devices had been created. But omnitools were marvelous products, and Adam was never without his, even during Boot camp.<p>

Speaking of which, Shepard joined Adam and the other new recruits for Boot Camp as his physical evaluation to see if he could get back into action. The acid burns left mass scarring on Shepard's torso. Shepard seemed to enjoy himself during training. During the morning five mile run, Shepard ran next to Adam, telling jokes and laughing along the way. Adam didn't enjoy it as much. His long term hibernation had done a number on his muscular system, and the constant training was particularly painful. His strength was returning, sure, but it was slower than Adam had expected.

"Looks like we finally found something that I'm better at than you" Shepard joked during one of their morning rituals, the obstacle course. "I'm enjoying myself."

Adam punched Shepard's arm in a rueful manner, the indicated response by the social etiquette of Shepard's social class.

Adam looked past the jogging marines ahead of him to the upcoming columns of ropes. He motioned his head at it so Shepard saw it as well. "Just wait Shepard. Just you wait."

"Ooooh! A challenge! Bet you can't make it to the top of the rope before I can."

Adam looked at him as the marines ahead of them ran for the rope.

"Really?"

Shepard smirked.

"See ya!"

With Adam distracted, Shepard ran ahead to the rope, grabbed hold, and began climbing, laughing as he began, then puffing as he neared the top. His eyes were concentrated on his goal as his body strained and sweat slid down his forehead. His hands reached the top and he grunted as he pulled himself over the edge onto the platform. Shepard heard a laugh next to him and he looked up. Adam stood there facing the next obstacle, the rope bridge, not a drop of sweat on his triumphant face. Adam gave his friend a mocking two fingered salute, and ran onto the next precarious obstacle. Shepard dragged himself up and did his best to catch up to Adam, muttering as he did.

"Well I'll be damned."


	3. Chapter 3

Adam fully recovered from his long hibernation by the end of boot camp, and he was feeling amazing. He hadn't used his muscles in what felt like eons. But he restrained himself, as always, to avoid any extra attention. If he started breaking all of the boot camp records, Adam knew that the Staff Sergeants would take note so Adam simply mirrored Shepard's performance. Granted, that meant they were both at the top of the class by a large margin, but at least he operated within what these people considered human limits. As expected, at the end of Boot Camp, Shepard was reinstated and Adam was placed in the same unit. Before joining the rest of the green marines in their newly filled platoon, both Adam and Shepard were to be sent to one last test. This put Shepard in a good mood, and he was smirking constantly. Shepard had his hands behind his head and he looked up at the ceiling above his bunk bed. Lights out had occurred only five minutes ago and just about every other soldier graduating from boot camp in this barrack was asleep.

"You know what this means right, Adam?"

Adam stopped fiddling with the omnitool he had taken from his nearby locker. He didn't sleep much.

"What? The meeting we have with the training specialists tomorrow morning, 0800 hours, main auditorium, used for the graduation later that day? No, I'm not sure if it has any significance."

Shepard chuckled to himself and leaned over the edge of his bed so he could look at Adam.

"Didn't need the info dump, but yeah. When I first went through boot camp, a few marines were dragged to an additional meeting the day of graduation too. They became officers that night."

Adam leaned back in his bed and looked up at Shepard.

"So you think that's where we're headed? Fair enough."

Shepard could only laugh at such a deadpanned response. He gestured energetically with his left hand.

"Is that it? Come on, Adam! We're going to be officers! We won't be treated like absolute pieces of shit anymore. Now, not only will at least some people act respectful around us, we get paid more, we can probably get more medals, and we lead soldiers! We will be badasses!"

Adam cocked an eyebrow at Shepard and his youthful, 20 year old, naiveté.

"You do realize what leading soldiers involves, right? Making snap decisions, lives on the line, and all of that?"

Shepard rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah. I took the basic officer training courses we all did. I've heard the whole shpiel. I know it's hard, totally different from just following orders and pulling the trigger. But still! We're climbing up that cliché ladder to success and shit."

Adam simply shrugged.

"It doesn't seem all you've cracked it up to be. Seems like more to worry about."

It was Shepard's turn to shrug.

"Guess we'll find out who's right soon enough."

They both smiled, but Adam's facial expression suddenly shifted to recognition.

"Oh! Almost forgot. Wanted to show you something been working on."

Adam raised his right arm and waved his arm. Blue flame sprang to life and danced across Adam's arm, ending in a condensed ball at the tips of his fingers. Shepard whistled appreciatively.

"Damn, that looks cool. How'd you finally change the color of your biotics?"

Adam didn't enjoy lying to Shepard about the nature of his abilities, but it was a necessity.

"Managed to… commandeer some compounds from the hospital wing where had physical therapy to help. Turns out the produced solution changed the color of the biotics. Every time control and utilize these biotics, body exudes additional energy, additional photons, that change the typical orange biotics to the apparently galactic norm of dark blue. Just repurposing parts of these Eezo nodes to release energy on a different wavelength. Even patented the solution. No way letting some two bit twat get his hands on this work. Ha!"

The truth of the matter is that all Adam had to do was focus his mind, and his flames turned from the young orange to the elderly star blue.

_Fitting. _

"You sly genius dog, Adam. How are you not a rich fuck yet?"

"Being rich sounds like it would be boring."

Shepard simply shook his head.

"Sometimes I just don't get you, Adam."

Adam genuinely smirked.

"You just haven't caught up to this yet."

Shepard responded to the jab with a liberal use of air quotes with his right hand.

"Yeah, yeah. You're totally 'beyond my comprehension.' Heh."

Shepard rolled back over in his bed and closed his eyes. Adam continued to play with his biotics, honing his ability to maintain the blue colour. It wasn't particularly difficult, but despite his age Adam still had no idea what he was doing exactly. He mostly operated his ability on instinct. As usual though, Adam found himself drawn back to his omnitool, continuing to learn anything and everything he could about this era.

_Eezo. What a curious substance. The way it is utilized too. Interesting. And then the spread of biotics in humans caused by exposures to Eezo. How... coincidental._

Despite his attempt to distract himself, Adam's mind returned to the conversation he just had. The feelings, emotions, he had expressed came much easier than he had expected. Adam actually felt when he interacted with Shepard. Adam physically blinked when he realized this.

_It has been centuries since the last time felt anything like that. Must see what Shepard becomes. He has a somewhat carefree attitude, seems like a temporary youth phase, but he seems determined. Hm, we'll see if don't need to kill Shepard. That could be a waste of carbon. And this 'Alliance military' seems like a source of entertainment. Fighting is always good._

* * *

><p>"Do you know why you've been summoned here, trainees?"<p>

Shepard and Adam stood at attention in their dress blues before the group of three Captains. The Captains sat at a small table facing the pair, while a larger table that appeared to be a giant view screen of some sort that had two chairs at either end was in front of them. Adam remained silent and continued to stare straight ahead. He figured letting Shepard do most of the talking would be the best. Besides, Shepard didn't hesitate to answer.

"Sir! We were summoned to this meeting, sir!"

"Yes, yes" the questioning captain in the center said dismissively. "That is the direct cause of you standing here in this room. That answer is not helpful. Try again."

Shepard blinked but quickly responded.

"Sir! We are to be screened for an officer commission, sir!"

Now the dark skinned captain nodded but spoke in a curt tone that indicated a clear 'no nonsense' attitude.

"Good. You went through this training once and it seems you haven't forgotten everything. What an accomplishment" he said dryly.

Shepard grimaced slightly. The captain continued.

"In any event, let's skip the formalities. You've both passed training and are both officially enlisted. Congratulations Ensign Jonathan Shepard and Ensign Adam."

The captain to the duo's right flipped open a file and began speaking.

"You are both the top of your class, in both your studies and physical fitness. We haven't seen performances like this for a long time. Now we want to see for ourselves if you can handle stepping up from being an ensign."

The black man in the center steepled his fingers. The captain to the left continued the apparent exam.

"Please take your seats at the table."

They dutifully did. The large screen immediately came to life showing a large area of terrain, an urban environment, with several red dots around and in the buildings. Two groups of five green dots appeared at the edge of the hologram environment, in front of Adam and Shepard respectively.

"We have seen your skills as individual soldiers and basic leadership" the captain to the left explained rather quickly. "But now we want to see your tactical skills as squad leaders in real time, with no preparation. Your objective is to neutralize all of the enemy targets. Your objectives may be updated on the fly. You have 20 minutes. Begin."

Adam made a small predatory smile as he focused on the hunt.

The moving red dots immediately disappeared and the green dots coalesced into small soldiers. Each squad has a sniper, an engineer, two riflemen with biotic abilities, and a regular rifleman. Adam quickly tapped his men and indicated where he wanted them to go.

_The red dots disappeared. Most likely these soldiers need a line of sight. The environment has many buildings. Last known location of enemy locations indicate ten in low lying buildings and four in a taller building, two on the roof, most likely snipers. Spotters are not common in this era. Biotics will be useful in clearing groups. Counter sniping the enemy snipers does not seem optimal, outnumbered, will most likely give away position upon first shot. Will storm that building first, must avoid low lying enemy. Wonder how Shepard's men fit into this. _

Oddly enough, Shepard set his men in a stationary defensive position where he first began. He looked at the assembled captains.

"Sirs, who is the enemy?"

The central captain quickly responded, quite sternly.

"You're wasting time soldier!"

Adam was undeterred and continued moving his men, while Shepard remained unphased.

"Sirs, without a clear knowledge of whom the enemy is I cannot properly lead my men, unless this knowledge is not available to our men."

Adam quickly glanced over to the captains and noticed the black captain's mouth twitch slightly.

_Hm. Shepard got it. Good._

Adam blinked.

_Wait, why good? Is it good because Shepard did well? Hm, will save that for later thought. Hunt for now._

Adam spoke up.

"Then prepare for some contingencies. One, the red dots are enemies and we are allies. Two, we are enemies and the red dots have disappeared. Three, we are enemies and the red dots are enemies. Four, we are enemies and the red dots are innocents. My men are ready for these."

Shepard turned his attention to Adam, his face relaxing a bit but still retained his own determined look.

"That sounds like a waste of energy, and you wouldn't be in an optimal position for any of the contingencies only a compromised position."

Adam quickly fired back.

"We received our instructions and the test began. Figured we had all of the available information."

"Perhaps. No harm in asking for this key information though."

The captains remained silent, the captain on the left quietly tapping notes into a data pad as he watched. Shepard turned back to the captains.

"Sirs, have we identified the enemy here?"

The two captains on the sides looked toward the one in the center. The one on the left spoke to him.

"Captain Anderson?"

The now identified captain smirked and spoke to the young soldiers.

"Good, you're both not total incompetents. Your two teams are enemies and there are no other hostiles in the area. Your objective is to neutralize the enemy team. Move."

Instantly, Adam could no longer see Shepard's men and Shepard could no longer see Adam's men. A keypad popped out of the table in front of the two of them. They looked at each other and smiled.

_We saw through the test. Good. This will be fun._

"Try your luck, Shepard, but if the battleship games are any indication…" Adam said with a grin.

Shepard rolled his eyes and began to furiously type in commands.

"If I remember correctly I began beating you at that damn game."

"Uhuh. Probability is against you."

Adam began to type to his men as well, advancing them to his right flank.

_Anderson did not specify that the red dots disappearing from view indicated that they disappeared from the scenario. But he said no other hostiles were present. Perhaps bystanders. Use them to my advantage, still know their general locations._

Shepard began advancing his own men to his right flank, but not close to the edge, and quickly entered the thick urban area, leapfrogging his men so that there are always two people on overwatch.

_Adam may be a knowledgeable mother fucker, but I know soldiering. That clump of tall buildings there should be a good place to set up. Lots of open space around the three buildings, good sightlines, good stuff._

A couple of minutes passed as the two maneuvered in silence, Shepard focusing completely on the map while Adam glanced over at Shepard every so often, reading him. The tapping on the data pad and keypads maintained a constant buzz in the room. Shepard reached his desired location and set up his sniper in a building, and a roving patrol of his two biotics while his rifleman and engineer remained to guard the building with his sniper. Adam moved his men methodically into the city, scanning everywhere. His leading rifleman brought his weapon up in a swift motion. On a balcony above his men, Adam saw a small red child throwing a small ball into the air and catching it.

_Red dots did not disappear. Civilians present. Interesting. Probably should abide by current warfare laws though. Should still be useful._

Finally, Shepard's sniper spotted a green dot dash across an intersection. A small smile crept up his face.

_Gotchya._

Shepard quickly moved his patrol around toward that intersection and kept his sniper watching that area for movement. His patrol made its way up a road to the left of the intersection, biotics in the front and rear with the techie in the middle. The leading biotic cautiously peered around the corner and saw Adam's soldier duck into a doorway of a one story building. Shepard swiftly executed a command and his biotic began firing at the building's window and doorway. Adam responded immediately and had his rifleman duck down out of sight and move over to a nearby window, giving Shepard's other biotic the time to safely move up and throw out a shockwave through the small house. The cowering rifleman was sent flying across the room. Shepard continued to capitalize on his advantage and ran his techie to the doorway Adam's man just vacated. Before the rifleman could fire even a single shot, the engineer threw a grenade into the middle of the room. Adam took note and quickly executed a series of commands as his rifleman was enveloped by the ensuing explosion.

KabooKaboom!

Shepard couldn't help but let his mouth twitch in a short smile at his small victory.

"B3, Adam."

But Shepard scrunched his forehead in thought as his tech moved in and swept the now uninhabited room for movement.

_That explosion…_

Shepard's sniper suddenly shifted his scope to the right when he spotted movement. A lot of movement. A dust cloud from a grenade detonation had erupted from the far side of a multistory building across from Shepard's position. Several red civilians ran out into the street in fear, a simulated natural response, immediately joined by the remainder of Adam's soldiers. A grimace developed on Shepard's face. His sniper saw the enemy, could fire and probably take out a biotic or the engineer, but the chance of hitting a civilian was too great. Even though this was only a simulation, Shepard adhered to the code of conduct all soldiers should follow. As such, Adam's men entered one of the buildings adjacent to Shepard's sniper and rifleman unimpeded.

Captain Anderson narrowed his eyes at this tactic, but the other unoccupied captain nodded slightly at the clever maneuver.

Adam sped his hands and men into position to maintain his momentum, trying to attack as Shepard repositioned his rifleman, recalled his patrol, and moved his sniper to support his rifleman. Only nine meters separated these two teams so Shepard threw every grenade he had into the building in hopes of either deterring an additional advance or killing a few. But Adam's numerical advantage allowed him to pour a large volume of fire at the two enemy positions while he ran his troops into Shepard's building before the explosions blossomed, suppressing Shepard's men. Desperately firing his rifle, Shepard's rifleman tried to retreat up the stairs to the sniper's position but was cut down by the four oncoming soldiers before he made it out. Adam ordered his biotic to move up and take up positions on the stairs right below the top floor, kept his sniper scanning the area on the first floor, moved his last biotic to prepare for the inevitable return of Shepard's patrol, and moved his techie outside on the side of the building furthest away from Shepard's patrol. Blind to these events taking place two floors down from his sniper, Shepard had his sniper plant a grenade set to a detonator by the stairwell and ran him toward a window overlooking a building no more than two meters away.

_Time to leave!_

The sniper leapt toward the window as Shepard's biotic peeked up into the room. The grenade emitted a loud beep as the sniper depressed the detonator. The biotic ducked down into the stairwell but his biotic barriers still faltered after absorbing some of the explosion. Watching from on high, Shepard grinned as his sniper landed on the neighboring building and rolled upon impact. The somewhat ruffled biotic made it to the window and fired at the fleeing sniper. Several shots impacted the kinetic barrier before Shepard made his sniper dive behind a row of turbines near the edge of the roof, preparing to return fire. Problem was, Adam's sniper already had a bead on him and promptly put a digital projectile through the enemy sniper's head.

Adam eventually won the engagement, having established a well defended position, a numerical advantage, and his own awakening memories of warfare, but several more tests soon followed. Adam won the next few, but Shepard was able to outmaneuver him several times and decisively won some engagements. Sometimes they were allies, and sometimes they were enemies, but the battles always had a catch, a hidden set of rules that the two had to uncover. They had to question everything and consider even more. After a total of ten tests had been successfully completed, the captain on the left tapped in a few commands into his omnitool and the holograms on the table winked out. Captain Anderson spoke up.

"That's enough of that. We've seen enough. Leave the room while we deliberate."

With crisp salutes, Adam and Shepard left the room, the door sliding shut behind them. Shepard crossed his arms and leaned his back against the wall.

"Heh. Turns out I can beat you. And somewhat consistently."

Adam shrugged.

"Had to happen eventually."

"Oh come off it. You beat me with cheap, sneaky tactics."

"It was a test of tactical skill. If at a disadvantage, don't turn away any advantage you can find."

Shepard frowned at that.

"Well you won't be able to use civilians as your tools in a battle, especially when you put them in harm's way."

He was met with another shrug.

"The explosion only frightened them, and I knew you wouldn't hurt them. They were safe anywhere on the battlefield, so I just moved them."

Shepard just glared at him. Adam met his gaze.

"Always follow orders."

"Good to know, Adam. " Shepard said with a sudden smirk. "If you didn't, you'd be a walking WMD."

Adam smiled back.

"Aim to please."

A few minutes later the door opened and the two soldiers filed in silently. The captain on the left, with the datapad, was still completely impassive, and the captain on the right had a small grin on his face. Captain Anderson was grimacing slightly but became neutral when the two walked in.

"Ensign Shepard, step forward."

Shepard glanced over at Adam but complied, standing at attention. Captain Anderson continued in a gravelly voice.

"It is the decision of this committee to promote you to Lieutenant Junior Grade. As such, you will operate as a squad leader in your platoon. You have shown outstanding abilities and commitment to the core values of the Systems Alliance. You have shown determination against insurmountable odds and survived. Are you ready to accept the responsibilities required of an officer in the Systems Alliance?"

Shepard stood up straighter and puffed out his chest.

"Sir! Yes, sir!"

Surprisingly, Anderson walked around the table and stood in front of Shepard. He extended his hand to the newly minted officer, a warm smile breaking through the neutral visage.

"Welcome aboard, son. We're glad to have you."

Shepard tentatively reached out, as if testing the waters, and grabbed the offered hand. They firmly shook.

"Thank you, sir. I won't disappoint you."

"See that you don't."

With that Anderson walked back to his seat, not giving Adam a backwards glance, rather he spoke to the captain on their right.

"Captain Mikhailovich, if you please."

The now named captain stood up.

"Ensign Adam, step forward."

Remaining at attention, Adam stepped forward, eyes remaining straight ahead, fixed on nothing.

"For showing cunning and physical abilities beyond our standards, for succeeding no matter what the odds, and for showing the utmost dedication to the chain of command, you have been enlisted in the Systems Alliance Marine corp, Ensign Adam."

He gave Anderson a sidelong look and then continued.

"You have been enlisted in the same platoon as Shepard. Due to your skills we have decided to make you Shepard's second in command. Shepard is free to change this set up at any time in the future, but for your first mission you will be his right hand. Understood, soldier?"

Adam barked out his response.

"Aye, aye sir."

Mikhailovich nodded at Adam and continued.

"Additionally, due to both of your outstanding performances, you have been conscripted into the Interplanetary Combatives Training program where you will both learn from the best and become the best."

Anderson and the third unnamed captain stood up and the three saluted the christened soldiers. Adam and Shepard returned the salute while the three captains left the room. As soon as the door closed behind them, Shepard turned to Adam and shouted as loud as he could, his fist punching the air.

"Woooohooo! Let the good times roll!"

Adam smiled at the outburst.

"Looks like you got your wish."

"Hell yeah! And more! Graduates of N-School are the ultimate badasses. Holy shit, this is amazing."

Then Shepard got a mischievous look on his face.

"So I get to order you around now. This is going to be fun."

Adam rolled his eyes.

"Remember, your holiness, watch your back and make sure you don't shoot your teammates in the foot."

Shepard smirked at that.

"I'll do my best to remember which way to point my gun. Besides, I'm a natural born leader. What could possibly go wrong?"


	4. Chapter 4

The explosions jolted Shepard awake from the uncluttered corner of the house he and his impromptu squad had found. Apparently the Batarians were advancing, again.

"Alright! Everybody up!"

In emulation of his words, Shepard jumped to his feet, continuing to shout orders.

"Firing positions, now! Move!"

The three surviving Alliance marines and five civilians with handguns rushed toward their prearranged locations in the two story home. The city block in front of them had been almost completely destroyed by tank fire before Shepard's men and some reinforcements they had had at the time were able to take them out. But Shepard only had three missiles left and the reinforcements had moved on to a more critical sector, as per his orders. There weren't enough men to adequately defend every part of the perimeter all the time. Roving bands of reserves were set up by Shepard. He may not have been the highest ranking officer in the area, but he was one of the only two N7 operatives on Elysium. As far any human here was concerned, they were effectively in command wherever they went. If those tanks came back soon, they'd have to resort to grenades and small arms fire.

_That would be bad. This building can't take much more punishment, and the meager military supplies that were on planet when the invasion began are diminishing rapidly. Almost no more heavy weapons, little armour. Good thing I always pack heavy for vacations. We're going to have to fall back again. We're getting closer to the civilian centers every hour. Fuck. Where the hell did pirates get tanks!? _

Shepard looked up out the window he was crouched by and cursed aloud. There were about twenty Batarians swarming over the rubble of the recently blasted buildings toward their position. Shots were already being fired out of key points of the building by his squad forcing the Batarians to slow and take cover. Shepard brought up his M-8 Avenger rifle and joined his comrades, short controlled bursts; Their supply of heat sinks was limited.

After a few bursts, Shepard ran over to Huan, the most recent female civilian they had rescued. She had developed a working relationship with a pistol commandeered from a Batarian corpse, but she was still easily unnerved by the four eyed menace. Shepard carefully sidled up next to the window she was firing out of.

"Hey, Huan!"

The lady in question spun toward Shepard as if she was caught in the headlights of an aircar.

"Uh, what is it… sir?"

Shepard patted her on the shoulder, trying to reassure her tense nerves as he joined her in firing.

"It's alright, just call me Shepard. You okay?"

Huan took a breath and slowly fired off another shot at a Batarian poking out of cover, wounding the bastard in the shoulder.

"I'm doing what I n-need to do, Shepard. Sh-shooting when I need to shoot. Besides, nothing feels better than defending your own home."

Shepard saw through her façade but said nothing, only nodded and ran up the stairs to hold up the morale of the rest of the civilians and get to a better spot to use his sniper rifle. The few who were trying to sleep under the staircase were failing miserably. Morale was the only thing keeping them together until…

_Well, until the Alliance gets here, I guess._

Unfolding his Mantis, Shepard duck walked over to the large hole in the wall where four of his soldiers, two civies, one Alliance marine, and one police officer were located. This civie, James, was doing far worse than Huan. He was cowering in a back corner with his head between his knees and hands covering his ears. James' Avenger was still beneath his legs.

_Sleep exhaustion and panic. Well, don't have time to help him now._

Shepard walked up to the kneeling man and gently retrieved the rifle, giving it to the police officer who was using a pistol.

"Appreciate it, sir."

"Don't mention it, Ed. Just put it to good use."

Shepard joined the officer and brought his sniper rifle to bear on the Batarian line. With a resounding crack and subsequent 'sboosh!' a Batarians head exploded from the powerful gunshot. The other Alliance occupied positions nearby were firing on their own approaching problems and still holding their own. The initial Batarian push seemed to have been stalled for now.

Shepard leaned back behind cover and activated his comm.

"All Alliance positions, status report!"

They had been able to create a rudimentary comm. network with the police communicators that Shepard had helped run to the forty positions around the city center two nights before. Now, there were only about twenty positions left.

_Sigh. We don't have enough people with military training and I can't be everywhere at once. _

The remaining garrisoned locations called in, most were under attack, as they had been throughout the past ninety six hours, but none had collapsed yet.

"Alright everyone, we're doing real good. We just have to keep protecting our families, understood!?"

While Shepard had no more blood relatives to speak of, saying that would help morale. A chorus of affirmatives came through the comms. Shepard brought up his rifle again and scanned the area; The Batarians in their area were pulling back.

_That's not good. We only killed a few before they retreated._

The Alliance marine, Francisco, took out a ration bar and began noisily chewing on it.

"So how long do you give us, sir?"

Shepard looked over to the man and raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?"

The marine shrugged and continued eating while scanning the area.

"My money's on until they make their next push with their vehicles. They'll blow away our cover before we can run out of missiles trying to take them out."

Shepard noticed the cringe that the civie and officer visibly exhibited. Here was one of the few military personnel around, that actually knew a thing or two about fighting, saying that they could not win.

_Goddamnit. What a role model. We really don't need this kind of talk._

"Until the Alliance comes by and pulls your whiny ass out of this fire. Just keep protecting all of the people depending on us and we'll be fine."

The last comment was more for the two others than the marine, and their gritted teeth and revitalized determined looks indicated that it worked. The marine may not have friends in the city, but these natives did.

Movement behind the Batarian front line caught Shepard's eye. Large movement.

_Shit!_

"Incoming!"

Moving so fast that no whine accompanied it, an explosive round from what looked like a black T-34 hover tank slammed into the nearby wall, launching everyone across the room. Shaking his head as his shields came back online, Shepard got off his back onto his knees. He grit his teeth in pain and reached for his fallen rifle, putting it on his back. He began shouting out orders, trying to reinstitute a semblance of order.

"Tanks! Get up! Fire on the infantry!"

Shepard ran over to a body, the merest amount of armour telling him it was Francisco, hoping it was still occupied.

_He doesn't look like he's bleeding. But he could have internal injuries. He probably does._

Shepard tapped Francisco's helmet and finally got a response. Francisco frantically looked around, fear evident on his face.

"Wha-? Ugh, what the fuck?"

"You hurt, soldier?"

Francisco brought up his rifle and rolled onto his stomach in a prone position.

"Fuck no, sir!"

"Good man! Suppress any advancing Bats! I'm getting the missiles."

Nodding, Francisco crawled over to the now pile of rubble and took aim.

"Aye, aye sir!"

Shepard quickly rolled over to Ed to get him up. Shepard grabbed Ed's shoulder and pulled up.

"Come on, Ed! Keep fighting!"

_Wow, he's lighter than I thought._

Having survived, James looked up from his still maintained fetal position. His eyes widened as he saw Shepard and he began screaming. That's when Shepard looked at Ed… or what was left. Shepard was holding Ed's upper half in the air, everything below the waist was missing, nothing but a bloody stump leaking intestines and a bit of spinal column remained. Shepard immediately dropped the torso in disgust. James vomited.

_Shit._

Luckily the other civie, Kim, got off her ass, glared at James, and grabbed Ed's rifle to help Francisco. Kim muttered under her breath.

"Cowarding little shit."

With a look of pity at James, Shepard ran back down the stairs to get the missiles from under the stairs. The three civies who had been trying to sleep had scurried over to the wall and were firing wildly at the tank.

"Shoot the Batarians, not the tank! I'll take care of it!"

Luckily, the ML-77 missile launcher had remained functional throughout the ongoing fighting and recent explosion. Hefting the weapon to his shoulder, Shepard aimed through a window at the now static tank. It was acting as an artillery position, and was behind some cover, but its turret and some of the body was visible from his position.

_Come on, baby._

Steadying his arm, Shepard squeezed the trigger. With a satisfying 'fwoosh!' the missile slipped through the window and headed to the tank about one hundred meters away. But he had overcompensated for the aforementioned cover and the missile passed by the tank, missing by centimeters, eventually dropping toward the ground and exploding. Some Batarian body parts were thrown into the air by the fireball.

_Well, at least that did something, but I need a better angle._

Sprinting up the stairs, Shepard ran over to the still intact side of the second story, bringing up the launcher again. Francisco shouted at Kim.

"Give him covering fire!"

Kim and Francisco fired constantly at the Batarians, ensuring that Shepard had the time to line up his shot. Now the tank was slowly approaching his building, firing on the nearby positions.

_They think we're harmless, huh? Stupid bastards._

The second missile streaked toward its moving target and smashed into the hull of the enemy tank, sending shrapnel and flames everywhere. A small cheer came from the floor below them. Shepard breathed out a relieved sigh.

_That should stall the Batarians for a while._

Then a crumbling building behind the Batarian line collapsed outward revealing three more tanks barreling toward his position. Shepard frantically ducked down and activated his comms.

"Does anyone near sector A5 have any heavy weapons!? We have tanks incoming!"

He waited, hoping for a positive response. Only static answered him. The tanks fired in a volley and completely obliterated a nearby occupied building. Then a broken up voice responded.

"Shepard- are incoming. Don't worry- (static)… toys, automated-."

"What? Repeat! Come in!"

Then he heard a high pitched whine from somewhere behind him. The signal became much clearer, and the voice was instantly recognizable.

"Shepard! You read me?"

"Adam!? Finally! Where the hell have you been?"

"Just following your orders. You said to get an effective response to the tanks, did that."

"Shit, Adam. That was hours ago. But you've got perfect timing. Get to sector A5! We just got a new wave of three tanks."

"Already en route. Sit tight! And don't worry, they're automated."

Shepard was taken aback at that.

"What are?"

The middle tank turned its turret toward Shepard's position, locking onto its intended target. Shepard saw it coming.

_Oh hell no!_

The high pitched whining came again and flew over his head. Looking up from what he saw as his imminent death, Shepard saw three aircars flash through the sky and immediately dive into the line of tanks, taking each of them out in a moment of glorious fire.

"Woooo! That's what I call support!" Kim shouted as the metal behemoths collapsed.

Shepard couldn't help but smile. He gave himself a moment of leisure and wiped the grime off of his face. A series of additional high pitched screams in the sky and explosions showered the Batarian line, destroying countless vehicles.

"Adam, you amazing son of a bitch! Where the hell did you find this many working aircars?"

"Found an underground parking lot. Took a while but we hacked most of them so we could control them with our omnitools. Using them as bombs seemed to be the best use of resources" Adam replied matter of fact. "See you in a minute."

Laughing as his fellow N7 signed off, Shepard brought out his Avenger and began firing at the confused and fleeing Batarians.

_Now we can go on the offensive, even if it is a small one. It might not be the best of ideas, but we still haven't had word from the Alliance and we need to put some more distance between the civilian centers and the front lines. These Bats aren't getting anymore slaves if I can help it. _

A series of heavy footfalls climbed up the stairs and Shepard turned to find Adam, in full N7 armour as well, the insignia having been filed off, and four other armed people. Adam gave him a crisp salute and Adam's four followers tried to follow suit.

"Reporting in, sir!"

Shepard reached out his arm and Adam quickly dropped the stiff posture, grasping the outstretched arm with his own.

"Glad to have you back, Adam. Your jackpot has finally given us some breathing room. How's the interior of the city?"

Adam looked back at his men and nodded at the back wall.

"Take a break."

The four men slumped and breathed deeply in relief, shuffling over to the indicated wall and sliding to the floor. Shepard didn't miss their evident exhaustion.

"Looks like you've been pushing it hard."

Adam glanced at the nearly unconscious marines.

"They kept up the whole way. And covered a lot of ground."

Shepard whistled appreciatively. Adam shrugged in response.

"They'll live. Anyway, the city is doing about as well as expected. The civilians are in their shelters, the Batarian ships in orbit have prevented any hope of evacuation, food supplies are adequate for now but without the imports from the surrounding farms they'll run out of food in three days, seven hours, and twenty two minutes."

Shepard smirked.

"What? No seconds place estimate?"

"Human eating behaviours are too variable to provide a seconds estimate with any degree of confidence" Adam replied without hesitation.

Rolling his eyes, Shepard moved on.

"What did you find out about the enemy forces?"

Adam placed his Avenger on his back and began pacing.

"The pirates are not solely Batarians, they are just the majority of the infantry. This is a confederacy of forces led by Elanos Haliat. They are most likely after the many potential slaves here, and the huge amounts of credits and supplies that could be plundered. However, this excursion is most likely funded by the Batarian Hegemony, for self evident reasons."

Shepard nodded.

"That explains why they're far better equipped than any other pirates we've faced. Military grade vehicles, equipment…"

"Indeed. They have this capitol city completely surrounded, with seven supply depots for their soldiers. The rest of the surrounding area has been effectively pacified. The remainder of the planet has been untouched. Despite the relative size and scope to other pirate groups, this invasion does not have enough resources to conquer the entire planet at once. Only this continent has been invaded, and only the surrounding three hundred kilometres have seen intense fighting. The pirate fleet located in low orbit is only composed of two cruisers, three frigates, and seven small scout ships. Several Mantis gunships have been deployed to patrol and test the perimeter we have set up, while a few are intended to be used to spearhead what the pirates want to be their final assault on the city."

Shepard rubbed his palms against his face and placed them on the back of his head.

"You certainly found out a lot while hacking air cars."

Adam smiled slyly.

"Happened to run into a Batarian incursion that made it through the perimeter. Had a high ranking Batarian in the pirate command structure among it. When properly pried, he was very informative."

Shepard grimaced but nodded in acknowledgement.

_Desperate times call for desperate measures. _

"Where are the gunships for this final assault being held?"

"A small illegal port that had been used by red sand smugglers about fifteen clicks to the southeast of this location. Well defended, but the pirates are still overconfident so their security so far behind their lines is probably lax."

"How many air cars do you have left?"

"Five have been placed in reserve one click to the west."

Shepard exhaled and realized that blood was leaking out of where the red and white N7 stripe used to be on his arm. Adam immediately kneeled down, scanning Shepard with his omnitool.

"Looks like you caught a bit of shrapnel in your arm. Imbedded in the tricep, luckily it missed your humerus."

Shepard grunted and peeled off the armour on his arm, revealing the gash and piece of metal. Without a word or signal, Adam grabbed the arm, held it still, and pulled out the metal shard in one quick motion.

"Fuck!"

Ignoring Shepard's discomfort, Adam applied the minimum amount of medigel from his dwindling supply that he could. When finished, Shepard flexed his arm and put the armour back on.

"It should be 1600 hours right about now. We'll take a break until sun down and then we'll head out to that port. The loss of their gunships should give us more time, or weaken the pirate patrols around the city so we could raid their supply depots. Or get food."

Adam nodded. No one else had the training to join them on this mission and it was a useful goal.

"You get sleep, Shepard. Will go scavenge from Batarian corpses for the mission."

Shepard waved him away and Adam saluted, jogging down and out of the building while Shepard made his way beneath the stairs for a brief snack and some shut eye. He knew Adam didn't sleep much.

_I wonder if he dreams of Akuze like I do. I'd try to never sleep if I could, but it seems like Adam can._

Shepard grimaced as the old memories resurfaced.

* * *

><p>"Shepard!"<p>

He immediately shot up to a sitting position and grabbed his pistol. Adam was kneeling before him, the sun evidently having set. Shepard relaxed and nodded to Adam who responded in kind. Adam stood up and offered his hand to Shepard who took it and was hefted up to his feet in Adam's iron grip. Without a word, Adam offered a few heat sinks and three grenades, fruits of his scavenging mission, to Shepard who found appropriate places around his armour for them. They knew their mission, they had their supplies, they knew what they had to do. They didn't need words. If telepathy existed, it would appear that they possessed it.

Leaving Francisco in charge, the two N7's quietly made their way out to the pirate line. After the last three attempts, the pirates had been taught to avoid night assaults on the Alliance militia at all costs. Even against poorly supplied militia, the pirate forces had yet to properly organize themselves to run coordinated night assaults. Shepard had taken advantage of these blunders as much as possible. Now the pirates hunkered down in their strongholds at night, watching the stretch of no man's land.

_As long as they don't do anything stupid tonight, we'll be fine_, Shepard thought.

Adam raised his closed fist and Shepard stopped against the wall. They both crouched and scanned the area, Shepard looking behind them and Adam looking ahead.

"You were in this area most recently. Anything special other than the concrete, concrete, and broken concrete?" Shepard whispered to his comrade.

Their comms were off and would remain off unless there was an emergency, to avoid possible detection.

"This 2 click line segment hasn't seen much action since the beginning of the pirate's invasion. It has no strategic or tactical significance of any kind other than being another tract of land the pirates need to watch. The enemy probably kept their force strength near the front lines here unchanged. However, security is expected to be heavier closer to the port."

"And how far have we gone behind enemy lines?"

Adam leaned one eye out around a hole in the concrete wall and peered back the way they came. A few quick mental calculations later, he responded

"Exactly 4.254677 clicks from our starting position. We should have another 1.745323 clicks before reaching the port."

With that new information, Shepard nervously clenched his left hand on the undercarriage of his Avenger.

"We're almost there. Their security has to be nea-"

Adam tensed up immediately and sliced his hand in a downward diagonal. It was part of their independent sign language, a dialect of the hand language taught to N7's. Shepard knew what Adam meant.

"_And speak of the devils."_

A small team of four Batarians strolled into view, two in front and two in the back with a varren between them, sniffing as it easily passed over rubble. The Batarians were not particularly alert, but the varren could be an issue. Shepard relayed this information through his fingers to Adam with Adam nodding in response. Adam grasped his throat with his right hand , paused, extended his thumb to his throat and then moved his thumb across his throat. Shepard quickly responded by grasping his throat. Killing the Batarians would alert everyone they reported to of an approaching human force. Adam nodded.

They carefully maneuvered around and through the rubble around them so that the Batarians would walk past them by a wide enough margin to prevent detection. It was when Adam was just about to slip around a corner on his stomach that he heard a small growl. A small gray varren poked its head around said corner, its slobbering mouth opening wide in anticipation.

"Shit" Shepard moaned, reaching for his pistol and knife.

Adam's hand came up telling Shepard to hold on. Adam looked through his visor into the eyes of the varren and snarled. The varren seemed physically taken aback. It whined in return but lowered its head in the end before backing away slowly and then fleeing.

Shepard was at least moderately surprised.

"Well then, that's new."

Adam shrugged.

"They're just animals. Give them a bit of charismatic leadership and they'll fall in line."

"Heh. I guess varren are more human than I thought."

There was no other notable event during their trek through enemy territory other than the most disturbing event in this campaign for Adam, and the most enjoyable event in Shepard's life: A Batarian urinated on Adam while he hid beneath rubble. Shepard nearly gave themselves away by laughing into his hand. Yet Adam's typical impassive expression was unbroken as urine ran down his face.

_Nothing new._

Slowly but surely, the pair finally made their way into view of their target. The docking area was nothing special; The building was about three stories tall with a roof area of 200m2, all composed of a grey metal alloy. The roof contained several gunships and large refueling stations camouflaged as simple generators. Many makeshift shelters were scattered around the building, pirates moving in and out of them at a leisurely pace. A few of them were on guard around the camp, but of the few guards there were, they were mostly located immediately around the docking building itself.

"Looks like a disorganized mess" Shepard whispered over to Adam.

"But there are many" Adam responded, his eyesight searching the area.

"Getting scared, eh?"

Adam calmly looked over at Shepard and rolled his eyes. Shepard grinned.

"Well then let's get to it. One of us acting as a distraction would be effective, but we don't know how many are inside. I don't like sneaking into an unknown area without someone to watch my back. Both of us sneaking in would be more difficult."

"Doable" Adam commented.

"Aye, doable, but I prefer optimal."

"Might be optimal in given scenario. Remote controlled cars are out of range." Adam fired back.

A few more seconds of silent mulling went by, both soldiers checking their weapons one last time. Shepard sighed and holstered his rifle in preference for his pistol.

"Fine. We'll sneak in together. They seem pretty lax in security. Sneaking in may be easy enough. But just in case we need some help, plant a couple of grenades in the camp as we go through."

"Roger that."

They quickly made their way into the camp. Security was lax indeed. There were no cameras that they could see and the varren they ran into Adam handled silently. They made their way through the camp, weaving in and out of makeshift structures, covering each other as they moved together. Then three laughing Batarians walked around a corner, blocking their path to the dock.

"And then I said, 'Now you're seeing double!'"

The two Batarians flanking the speaker burst out laughing as the punch line concluded. Adam immediately relaxed and started to walk toward the group. Shepard quickly holstered his pistol and, cursing under his breath, followed Adam's questionable lead. The Batarians finally noticed them.

"Hey!" the leader called out, "What are you doing here? Aren't all of the humans with us supposed to be trying to sneak into the civvies' camps?"

Shepard narrowed his eyes but said nothing.

"Yeah, we were part of that operation" Adam responded nonchalantly and with an unfamiliar accent. "But we found a cache of weapons and money hidden away in a building about fifty metres into their lines on the southeastern side. We thought the solstice had come early! But what do ya know, we got called back here for some small gunship mission."

Shepard caught onto Adam's ploy and started nodding.

"I coulda bought a hooker for the next three months with that cash" Shepard grumbled loudly. "Too bad it was stored in fucking crates."

The lead Batarian smiled widely at this revelation.

"Well, we wouldn't want to let a little pitfall like that stop us. Mark the location of that building on my map and we'll take care of it."

Adam scoffed at that.

"And what, let you take all the loot for yourself? We get 60% of that stuff for finding it. You can have the rest."

Shepard furrowed his brow.

_Why is Adam prolonging this?_

"60%!?" the Batarian scoffed right back. "It's gonna be me and my friends who will be dragging that stuff back here through enemy territory. We don't blend in like you. For your spirit, I'll give you both only 15%. Don't push your luck, human."

Adam held up his hands in annoyed defeat.

"Fine. No need to get all aggressive there, four eyes. Here. Go fucking nuts. The way to the building is clear, we didn't see any humans alive around there."

Adam marked what looked to Shepard to be a random building on the edge of the resistance's territory. The Batarians quickly walked off.

"Pleasure doing business with you, human" the Batarian laughed back at them as he and his cadre moved off.

Shepard and Adam were finally alone and began walking toward the nearby dock.

"I'm not complaining or anything, seeing how it worked, but what the fuck was that? Why'd you try to haggle with him?"

Adam answered without looking to his side at Shepard, his eyes continuously scanning the area.

"Pirates typically hold a craving for power, wealth, and independence. Not haggling would have seemed odd and might have created suspicion. Was in character. They will keep all loot for themselves anyway."

"But we have people stationed in that house!"

Adam nodded and explained.

"When we left, that was true. And the two buildings adjacent to it. Had visited that outpost last night. Perceptive people there. Have good eyes, ranged weapons and ammo. Batarians will most likely be killed, even if they gather more friends."

"You don't know that!" Shepard cursed.

Adam shrugged.

"It is the most likely outcome. This is a war. Have to inflict casualties on enemy as many times as possible. Better than waiting for the Batarians to learn that resistance is there and then attack it in force."

Shepard shook his head.

"Let's just focus on our mission."

"Agreed."

The two of them blended in fairly well. Some of the pirates were as armoured as they were so they did not stick out much. One of the guards lazily standing by the entrance to the ad hoc port waved them through without too much fuss. When the two of them got out of the elevator on the roof, a flock of gunships greeted them…

…And their pilots.

A group of salarians and turians were gathered around a low crate with cards and a small pot of money and gear on it. A couple of salarians were atop a gunship, working on an open panel. One of the turians playing cards looks over at Shepard and Adam, and got up.

"Alright, now what do we have to do?"

Adam looked over at Shepard and took a half step backwards. Shepard understood.

"You all the pilots left?" Shepard called out.

"Yup."

"Thank you."

Shepard quickly drew his pistol and fired it three times: Once into each shoulder of the standing turian and once into his right knee. The turian crumpled to their left, providing Adam with a clean line of sight on the group, upon which he quickly opened fire with his now unslung Avenger. Shepard moved his fire to the group as well, finishing off those who remained, allowing Adam to use his biotics on the two salarian pilots. Their remains slid down the hull of the gunship as two balls of leaking flesh.

"That was more than audible" Adam pointed out.

"No shit, Sherlock. Just get into a ship."

Adam cocked his head to the side then nodded in agreement. They both made themselves at home within the cockpit of the nearest Mantis gunship. Adam took the forward position where the pilot controls were located, while Shepard took the aft position so he could control the ship's shields, guns, and other electronics. Flipping on the ship and its shields, Shepard asked

"You know how to fly this thing?"

Adam's eyes fluttered for a moment. Gunshots began pinging off the shields of the ship as reinforcements exited the elevator.

"I do now."

Shepard cursed loudly as they lifted off from the roof.

"Adam, swing us around so we can take out those other ships."

"Roger that."

With the grace of a practiced surgeon, Adam guided the gunship back toward the port where Shepard opened up with the chain guns and missiles. A cacophony of flame engulfed the roof as the twin lines of ships erupted from the missile impacts.

"Ha! Bastards won't be spearheading an assault anytime soon. I wonder how much more damage we can do!"

They began flying away from the area, wary of any anti-air fire.

Adam grinned menacingly, the fire somehow still reflected in his eyes.

"Let's find out."

* * *

><p>The memorial service finally drew to a conclusion. Adam fidgeted constantly in his seat due to his lack of interest. He hadn't been able to do anything for three hours.<p>

_But Shepard practically ordered me here. Said we were expected._

There had been two seats reserved for them on the dais where the podium for the speakers stood, along with leading politicians in the area and military personnel who had arrived to relieve the battered defenders on the planet and destroy the pirate fleet. Shepard was sitting proudly in his chair, his torso perfectly orthogonal to the seat of his chair, the three medals they had both been awarded shining brightly in the afternoon sunlight upon his chest.

"And now one of the leaders of our brave defenders would like to say a few words."

Adam rolled his eyes as quietly as he could while Shepard stood up and walked to the podium. Shepard grasped each edge of the podium and leaned into the mic.

"I may not live in this city, this continent, or even this planet, but I'd like to think that after fighting beside some of the bravest people I have ever met I can honestly attest to the courage, tenacity, and sense of duty in each person on this planet."

This met with applause from the crowd.

"But we cannot forget the many people who died to allow you the ability to rebuild. Fellow humans who I considered my friends died beside me. We must never forget."

There was a somber moment of silence with scattered applause.

"Remember this though, when you are rebuilding our homes: We won. We have the opportunity to honour the sacrifice made by our friends. Don't mess it up."

Shepard left the podium and returned to his seat as the crowd and the seated honoraries roared its approval.

"Sounds like you have a career in public speaking" Adam commented.

"Hell no. My legs almost buckled during every second of that. I just want to get back on duty soon."

Adam noticed the tightening of Shepard's jaw.

"Want to honour their sacrifice so soon?"

Shepard looked at Adam and then back at the crowd.

"Come off it. Let's just leave this rock."

The ceremony came to a close after Shepard's little speech, finally letting them free to board the next military shuttle off the planet. To Shepard's surprise, someone was waiting for them.

"Captain Anderson?" Shepard asked, snapping to a crisp salute along with Adam.

The keen eyed captain approached the two with a smile on his face and a hand extended.

"Shepard, it's good to see you alive."

They shook.

"Good to be alive, sir. You helped take down that ragtag pirate fleet?" Shepard asked smiling.

"I might have helped a bit. But I was called down here for a particular reason."

Anderson moved two boxes in his other hand into view and handed one to Shepard and Adam. Shepard brightened at what he found inside.

"I figured those Lieutenant bars were getting a little old. It was time for an upgrade."

Shepard and Adam both saluted Anderson who deftly returned it.

"Lieutenant Commander Shepard, Lieutenant Adam, you earned this."

Anderson shook their hands again.

_So many formalities, _Adam thought to himself.

"I know you boys have just seen a lot of action, but given your accomplishments here, the higher ups in the Alliance have decided to put your considerable talents to good use."

Anderson shook his head.

"If it were up to me, I would be giving you some R&R instead."

"Boring" Adam pointed out. Anderson shot him a look.

"In any event, you're both being assigned to a new team and a new mission."

"Don't worry about us, sir" Shepard said. "We are more than happy to keep going."

Anderson frowned at this.

"I guess I'm too old for this. You're bird leaves here at 2100 hours"

"We'll be there, sir."

Anderson turned away and left with a small escort of armed soldiers. Shepard and Adam looked at each other.

"I think we earned ourselves a drink. Or a few."

Adam nodded at that. "On me."

Shepard laughed at that as they headed off toward the nearest bar. Wherever the military is, pubs will be open no matter what.

"One of these days you have to show me how you keep making all of this money."

"You did not loot any bodies or buildings during the fighting?"

Shepard was visibly taken aback by that statement and its nonchalant delivery.

"Uh, no. That would be… just no."


End file.
